


On My Mind

by WickedCinnamonRoll



Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Pet Names, Romantic Fluff, Sneaking Out, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-15
Updated: 2019-08-15
Packaged: 2020-09-01 18:21:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20262466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WickedCinnamonRoll/pseuds/WickedCinnamonRoll
Summary: While stuck in detention, Clementine is in the process of being bored to death. That was until she got a notification from a special someone.This fic is a birthday present for my friend Jenna.





	On My Mind

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jennka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jennka/gifts).

The loudly ticking classroom clock read 3:15 and as Clementine watched it continue to tick from her desk, she knew where she should’ve been.

She should’ve been back at home, sitting at her desk, surrounded by textbooks and cookies while she did her daily studying. The faint wind blowing through her open window that fluttered her curtains would carry the sounds of passing cars and singing birds settling back into their nests.

But there wasn’t any of that.

The only sounds that filled the classroom were the ticking of the clock and the clacking of nail extensions against the keys of the teacher’s computer. And as for studying, she was told not to. Instead, all she could do was sit in complete silence until it was her time to go, watching the hands of the clock slowly spin around and around.

She knew detention was the last thing she deserved, but some of the teachers thought otherwise.

Nothing was out of the ordinary in her eyes when she arrived to school and casually went from classroom to classroom. But once she entered her last period of the day, history, she found out about her apparently fatal error. The skirt she decided to wear that day, a high waisted one which stopped right above her knee, was too short according to her teacher. At first, she tried her best to stay polite when telling him her thoughts on the matter. However, he didn’t let up and refused to have her think that she was in the right. His words were sexist and condescending while his tone dripped with belittlement and there was no signs of it stopping with how she was handling it. Her words, still respectful, now held an assertive air to it as her voice grew louder as if he was on the hard of hearing side. 

The teacher, now taking greater offense to her words, raised his own voice and it wasn’t at all like how Clementine raised her voice. He began yelling at her, getting red in the face and angry veins popped from his forehead and neck as a result of how intense it was. Clementine couldn’t even believe how extreme he was taking things. All eyes were on her and the teacher at this point and though she was sure not a single student took his side, no one spoke up and instead, kept to their work, trying hard to ignore the yelling. One of his absurd accusations towards the student was that it was  _ her  _ that was causing this entire scene. Before she could say anything to that and before she knew it, she was banished to the elusive detention room. He even walked her down, smugly explaining to the teacher in charge why she had been sent down.

Though her anger had been simmering since she first sat down, it had not fully left her. The buzzing and stinging feeling of the bright fluorescent lights beaming down on her certainly didn’t help to calm her nerves. Neither did the constant clicking of nails against computer keys. The teacher never seemed to slow down and she barely looked up from the screen. It was almost robotic. Even the short speech she gave her about no talking and phones had no ounce of feeling or emotion to it and Clementine could only imagine how wired in it must’ve been in her brain or chip or motherboard or whatever a brain to a robot was.

She shifted in her seat, hating doing nothing more than anything. She just had to occupy her hands, whether that would be with studying or her phone. Of course, it would be much harder for her to study in secret with a book or notebook, so her phone seemed like the right choice of what to waste her time with. It was but a few hand movements away, nestled away in the pocket of her supposedly outrageous skirt and she at first only drew an outline of it with her finger as she carefully watched the teacher. The teacher in question continued to stare into the monitor with blank, glazed over eyes and other than her rapid fingers, the rest of her body stayed eerily still. 

It almost didn’t seem like that big of an accomplishment from how easy it was. Nonetheless, she quietly leaned back in her seat and placed her phone under the table and her eyes flickered down at her lockscreen made up of sunflowers. As soon as she typed in her passcode, the tiny red notification from SnapChat caught her attention first.

She opened it up and felt her heart swell and her mouth curl into a smile once she saw who it was from. None other than the dork who owned her heart, Louis. She didn’t even open it yet but she had a feeling it would be a selfie. Recently, Louis had insisted that they start doing daily streaks and it took quite a lot of persuasion on his end to convince her, but she eventually gave in and boy, was he proud of himself because of it. She will admit, even though she saw it as pointless, she rather enjoyed all the well executed selfies he would send her on the regular. He never half-assed them either. He always made sure each on with their lighting and angles were Instagram worthy and even the cheesy messages he would attach to them could work perfectly as the captions. As for her, she rarely responded with selfies of her own, instead opting out for pictures of whatever homework she was working on or show she was watching. On the off chance she would decide to send a selfie back, her dms would be flooded to the brim with a wall of heart eye emojis and things of the such. It never failed in making her blush and yell at him through text for him to shut up, but he never did and she was more than fine with it.

Once she finally did open the picture, it seemed like she was right on the money.

From the familiar look of the room, she could tell he was in the music room on the other side of the school. There was a number of things he could’ve been doing, but since that’s where he’d often stay after school to work on projects, she could bet that’s what it was.

He took a moment from working to send an oh so important picture of himself smiling to Clementine, the lighting and angles perfect as always. She held back a laugh imagining at how ridiculous he must’ve looked taking it in an empty room standing in front of the school’s piano. The text that accompanied the picture excitedly read  _ “Hey youuu! U home yet??” _

She quickly snapped a picture of her feet from under the desk and typed out,  _ “Nope. Because my teacher is a sexist (and probably racist cause lets be honest) pig, he sent me to detention cause my skirt was ~too short~” _ She went to the emoji section and decided that the one that perfectly represented her was one actually made by one of her friends, Gabe. It was a rather grumpy little animated orange he had made while experimenting with animating and she loved it so much, she had insisted he send it for her to use. It was by far one of her favorites. 

It wasn’t long after that when he sent another pic.

Instead of a selfie, it was now a blurry picture of the piano with the words,  _ “AND YET ANOTHER REASON WHY THE AMERICAN EDUCATION SYSTEM IS FUCKED” _ and in a less angry tone, underneath he continued with  _ “Was it Mr. Marsh again??? Istg he has something against you” _

Now crossing her feet in the picture, she said,  _ “Ya it was him. Same Mr. Marsh who called my hair distracting and said the same for my exposed shoulders.” _

_ “Get u a girl that would send u shoulder pics” _ He sent, followed by a line of flustered emojis.  _ “Shit is hot af” _

That time, it was much harder to keep a laugh back and ended up having to hide it with a fake cough. Thankfully, the teacher didn’t even flinch.

_ “Shut!! Up!! I’m honestly rlly pissed by all this >:/ I should be back home by now” _

_ “Does Lee know u had to stay?” _

_ “No, he should still be at work and tbh, I don’t think I want him knowing about this. It’s not like I actually did something wrong. I only stood up for myself.” _

_ “Damn right u did!!!” _ As usual, Louis was supportive as always and guessing by the second photo he sent, he was gonna be giving her more attention than whatever work he had going on.

The next picture was that of the number of the room he was in.  _ “If you’re gonna be stuck at school, u might as well be kicking it with me instead of with all the delinquents or ruffians as I call them.”  _

She rolled her eyes and now deciding to be a little risky, she took a picture of the teacher from the top of her desk.  _ “Great idea, Einstein. Just one problem: how am I gonna get past teachbot 3000 without getting into even more trouble? Didja think of that?” _

_ “Don’t you worry your beautiful lil head bout it! Detective Louis is on the case!” _

_ _ As she exited Snapchat and opened up Instagram to continue wasting her time away in this prison cell of sorts, she didn’t think much about Louis’s offer. It was the typical type of talk Clementine was used to hearing from Louis. The kind of escapism “oh when will my prince come and rescue me” kind of talk to be expected from such a dramatic and theatrical boy like Louis. She would often be texting him in between her study sessions and once she would mention the fact that she was studying in the first place, he would waste no time in announcing that he was on his way to “save her.” Ultimately, the loaded promises wouldn’t be fulfilled and she would simply resume with her work.

That’s when she got another notification from Louis.

_ “Maybe pretend to be sick and ask to leave?” _

_ “Yeah, but then she would send me down to the nurse’s office and probably call the nurse to make sure I made it and then blah blah I would be caught :/” _

_ “O ya good point” _

As expected, the promises of breaking her out didn’t seem all that serious on his end, not that she minded all that much. She was still, of course, pissed off she had to be there in the first place, but most of her anger subsided over time. 

Continuing to scroll through Instagram, she internally sighed, fully admitting to herself how jealous she was of her friends out doing their own thing and posting about it. It didn’t help at all that it was Friday.

Violet hanging out at Brody’s place watching anime together, totally  _ not  _ hiding underlying feelings from each other. 

Marlon and Mitch playing video games together as Rosie tiredly laid across one of their laps.

Gabe posting a work in progress painting for a class and complaining on how he couldn’t get the colors right. She resisted the urge to comment about how he must be color blind because it looked more than fine to her.

Once she got to a few pictures of Duck going out for a run and hanging out with his mom, she reached the end of that day’s posts. She could refresh the page every few minutes, but she knew it would drive her crazy. At this point, she really was at a loss for what else to do.

That’s when the idea of actually busting out crawled back into her head.

She knew he wasn’t being serious, but she wasn’t about to say she was against the idea of spending her time with him instead of stuck in detention.

She considered messaging Louis again, but instead, shoved her phone back into her pocket. Placing her hands up on the desk, she began to stare intently at the teacher typing away. No matter how hard she stared, she never once looked up or hesitated in her typing. It really was like she was some kind of programmed machine, designed to do one or two tasks and literally nothing else. As for the few other students, they were either fast asleep or sucked into their own phones, barely making an attempt to hide them like Clementine did.

And the more she listened in on muffled snoring, the quiet tapping of keyboard keys and the deafening ticks from the clock, the more she yearned for it to be replaced with the gentle melodies of piano keys and laughter of her boyfriend.

Just thinking about it put a smile on her face and a hopeful feeling in her heart.

And that...made her even more willing in the once joking plan to escape.

She began to think intensely of all the ways she could slip out without drawing too much suspicion from the teacher. Like she explained to Louis, she simply couldn’t give the excuse she was sick. If she did that, she could bet on the teacher telling the nurse and when she wouldn’t go, she’d be busted. She just needed some other reasonable excuse to be gone for a long period of time.

That’s when the pieces began to put themselves together.

As she thought more about it, she took a deep breath, praying that at least some of Louis’ acting abilities rubbed off on her.

As soon as she stood up to go over to the teacher, the teacher in question immediately stopped typing and whipped her head around to face Clementine. It was enough to almost completely stun her and for a moment, she lost her train of thought.

“Yes?” The teacher finally said in a snappy tone.

“Uh,” She blinked a few times as she remembered what she was doing in the first place. Glancing around, she noticed that thankfully, not a lot of the students there took the time to look up.

Still, Clementine inched forward closer to her desk and kept her voice low.

“Um, yeah, I’m actually not doing too good and-”

“Go down to the nurse then.” The teacher quickly responded, ready to turn her back on Clementine to go back to whatever she was typing.

But Clementine wasn’t about to be shut down that easily. “W-Wait, not like that!” She exclaimed. “It’s more like...uh-”

At this point, it wasn’t really acting on her part. She genuinely felt awkward for what she was about to ask and imply. She glanced down at her feet as she played with her hands nervously. She even laughed softly due to her nerves.

“Um-”

“I don’t have all day.”

Clementine cleared her throat and looked back up, eyes large and hopeful.

“You see, it’s an issue that uh...mostly concern some girls like me...if that makes sense?”

Only then did it also seem to click with the teacher and though her expression barely wavered, she closed her eyes and deeply sighed, sounding annoyed beyond belief.

“In that case, you may go use the restroom.” She grimaced not so subtly. “And don’t come back until you see fit.” 

She smiled sneakily to herself and once the teacher turned back to the glowing screen, Clementine walked back to where she was sitting, swung her bag over her shoulder and wasted no time in leaving the room. It almost seemed too easy, but she wasn’t about to let that slow her down

Though the buzzing of fluorescent lights remained, she could already feel a huge weight leave her shoulders. She let out a deep breath once the door behind her shut.

One step closer to Louis.

And she wouldn’t admit it, but as she walked down the empty and waxed hallways, her heart filled her head with overly mushy thoughts. 

Louis had recently started casually teaching her how to play the piano when they had any free time and with him being in the music room, she hoped they could sneak in a few lessons for the day. Sometimes, while sitting next to him and watching him play, she would lean her head onto his shoulder and only vaguely pay attention as she every once in a while glance up and admire his focused expression. He would always call her out for not paying attention, but she would beg to differ.

She was very much so paying attention and she was enjoying the view.

A light scoff slipped past her lips. She really was behaving like some sort of lovestruck teen right out one of those high school centric movies and she didn’t mind a single bit. For so long, those types of movies made so little sense to Clementine and she couldn’t picture herself at all feeling the types of things portrayed in them.

Feeling your heartbeat accelerate when you see that special someone.

Them being one of the first things that pop into your head right when you wake up or right before you fall asleep.

Your heart and lips smiling wide at just the mention of them.

Wanting nothing else in the world besides knowing they’re well.

It seemed almost comedic to her just how extreme these emotions sounded.

That was before she met Louis and everything seemed to click.

Her daydreams were suddenly interrupted by the sound of heavy footsteps stomping against the cold tiled floors. Without even thinking, she ducked and hid behind one of the many vending machines that lined the walls. Though it could’ve been seen as unnecessary, she was beyond glad she ended up doing it once she saw who the footsteps belonged to.

That damned teacher who sent her to detention in the first place was still in school, strolling around doing god knows what. She stood there motionless for what felt like forever with how slow he walked. Even when he was long past her, she only dared to move once he was completely out of her line of sight. Even then, the irrational fear that he would suddenly be right behind her as soon as she stepped out was one she had. She felt her nerves calm, however, once she stepped out and carefully continued to creep down to the music room. 

Since it was in the art hall, she could bet on a couple handfuls of students staying to finish a project or two and hopefully they’d be so wrapped up in whatever they were doing that they wouldn’t have the energy to rat her out.

As expected, the few times her eyes happened to wander over the door windows, she could make out a few heads and hunched over figures meticulous drawing, painting and sculpting their hearts away.

Funnily enough, when she was only a few steps away from the slightly ajar music room door, her phone went off when Louis sent her another message. 

_ “Blehhh what do u even DO while in detention?? Like Marlon told me they don’t even let u work on school stuff so wtf do u even do? Sleep? Die?” _

Clementine smirked as she silently typed up her response, making sure the picture didn’t show just how close she was to reuniting with her love.

_ “Teachers said fuck students rights” _

_ “For real tho” _

_ _ Sure, peeking inside without the other person having any clue you were there sounded creepy in theory, but she had to admit it just added to the whole rebelling act she was pulling that day.

He sat at the piano with notebooks and papers stacked atop each other on the table next to it and as he wrote whatever it was, his other hand mindlessly tapped lightly against random keys of the instrument. Even when he was deep in thought with something else entirely, the music he made still sounded so pleasant.

She contemplated snapping a picture of the view she had, but she decided against it, not wanting to freak him out  _ too _ much.

It wasn’t long until he picked up his phone again, holding it over his work and before long, Clementine’s phone lit up with another notification.

_ “So bored rn tho but then again, I can only imagine what it’s like for u lmao” _

_ “It’s about to get less boring dw :3c” _

_ “?????” _

She could visible see his eyebrows scrunch up in confusion while his lips pouted after he sent that last message and though he hesitated for a moment, he returned to his work.

She almost felt like that emoticon she had just sent with how smiley and sneaky she felt.

That’s when she decided it was time to send a picture of the room’s number.

_ “I’ll give you one guess with what I mean ;)”  _

She almost snorted upon seeing the look on his face coupled with the confused muttering under his breath. Once it seemed to click, he whipped his head around, eyes wide and mouth agape.

That’s when Clementine let out all her repressed giggles and Louis smiled widely.

“Darling!” He gasped.

“Yep, that’s me.” She said confidently. “Is my damsel still in need of rescuing from this killer boredom?”

Indeed he was, but now? He was safe.

No more taps from that computer.

Only the gentle breathing and chatter from her love and the piano tunes that joined his sweet, warm singing voice.

Maybe she’ll stay after school more often.


End file.
